The Dragon Rider Chronicles part of book1

Ch. 1

Fire engulfed the surrounding houses, screams pierced the night. We ran, my best friend and me. Our parents were trapped in our houses. Tears slid silently down my cheeks as I realized I would never see them again. The evil wizard and his servants along with there dragons were taking over the cities one by one, trying to gain control of all the land. We humans, elves, dwarves and centaurs fought bitterly against them, but unfortunately, since three of our five dragons had been slain, our power was now plummeting. We ran on, trying to find a place to hide.

“Follow me” Ivan hissed. You could tell by his voice that he had been crying. We headed to the old hideout we used as kids. It was a cave that we rarely used and no one we knew, knew of. As we drew closer, we saw that the cave was lit.

“It could be some of the other villagers!” I whispered but we should still be cautious!”

“You’re right.”

We approached the cave as quietly as possible and heard a male voice. It was sobbing. I peeked in the cave. What I saw startled me, shocked me and surprised me. It was a man, with a dragon. This was one of our dragons though, and it was dying. The rider, whose name was Theldune, was the one crying. His head was in his hands and he did not notice that the dragon was laying eggs, so I cleared my throat. Theldune looked up. “Wh-who are you? His voice quivered.”

“My name is Jakarta, this is my best friend Ivan. We ran away from Payton and came here. Who did this to your dragon and did you notice those?” I asked pointing to the eggs.

“One of His nasty servants! Their dragon put this big gash down her side. It is beyond healing. And did I notice what?”

“Those eggs!” I squealed. There were five brightly colored eggs lying beside her. Her breathing was very short and very slow. Soon she wasn’t breathing at all. When she stopped breathing, it was as if grief spread throughout the room. We to, were overcome with sorrow.

That night was a sad one, as we talked about what we were going to do from here and explained that we had no parents. He offered to be our guardian until we could find a home.

“I was once homeless, my parents died from sickness,” he explained to us.

The next day when we woke up, we took about three hours to dig a hole for the dragon. Theldune paid his last respects before covering her.

“We are going to Heltran, where the only remaining dragon lives. There, our path will be clearer. If you want we could round up some horses and go through the wreckage.”

“Yes, we should go through the wreckage and get some supplies.”

“Jakarta! What about your sister? Didn’t her friend and her go camping in the forest?”

“You’re right, they should still be alive.” I exclaimed, happy that I still had one member of my family alive.

Theldune offered to help us look for her and we gratefully accepted. We walked into the now unfamiliar clearing, where our lives had been, where our memories were. The place that we had once loved and the people that we had once loved. All was gone and in the place of them, laid ashes. “The wizard will die for this!” I said, using my most menacing voice.

“Yes, he will. I will help you! I’ll stick by your side even if we die trying to kill Him!”

We went through the wreckage and gathered all that our new packs would hold. I took a sword, a bow and some arrows, three big canteens, all the food I could find, and some books for entertainment. I found one book named “Dictionary of the Feltronian language. I decided to keep it because I had heard a little about the Feltronian language. It was supposed to be able to transfer your energy into magic. It could be useful.

I looked up to find my sister looking at the remnants of the city. A look of pure shock, revulsion and sadness was on her face.”

“Shiva, over here!” I called to her

“Where are the others? Are they all right? What happened?” I could tell a billion questions were buzzing through her brain. “The others are all dead or taken by Zeldever.”

“Even mom and dad?

“Yes, Zeldever might have taken them, or they are dead”

“Don’t say the name!” she broke into sobs. This was unusual for her. Usually she held her head high and never cried. The girls finished rummaging through the town and followed us to the cave.

“We are going to Heltran for safety. Heltran has the last living dragon-”

“He was a dragon rider too. His dragon died last night.” I interrupted

“Yes it did and I am extremely mad about it. I will help your brother and his friend on there mission to kill him. However, since they vowed to kill him first, it is there task. If you wish to help, we would be glad to accept it and to take you along with us to Heltran.”

“We will! But what happened to the town!”

“Him, his servants and their twisted dragons lit the town on fire and took many people with them. We will leave soon, and you should start getting ready! We have a few extra riding horses. You can borrow two of them. One will be for supplies. We can also carry some supplies with us. Each of us will take one of these five dragon eggs.” I took an egg and admired its glossy red and pale yellow surface.

“It feels warm even though it’s so chilly out!” I exclaimed.

“What? What did you say?”

“So does mine!” Ivan exclaimed.

“It does!” Shiva stated.

“Mine doesn‘t let me feel yours,” Malina, Shiva’s friend, demanded. No it doesn’t! It feels cold also!” the girls started bickering over how the egg felt.”

“Quiet for a minute! Do they feel like they burn, yet they do not hurt?” Theldune asked.

“Yes” we replied in unison

“Wow, already? How can this…this cannot be…,”

“What do you mean?” Shiva asked.

“Well, you are going to be dragon riders. Dragons choose the people they want to be with and be raised by, while they’re in the eggs. You three have been chosen! It is also uncommon for younger people, such as you, to be chosen,”

“What” I choked? I nearly dropped the egg, in surprise

“Dragon eggs usually hatch in one to three days. That leaves two remaining eggs. I will carry one and Malina, you can carry the other.

We set off at a slow pace. The atmosphere around us was dreary and foggy. No birds chirped or sang, the little critters didn’t scamper about as they did before. Not even a cricket sounded. The silence was broken as we neared the brook. Its cheery babbling didn’t stop. The birds began to sing as we crept nearer. The critters even peaked out of their holes. The brook was shallow and easy to cross. We filled our canteens and went on. We stopped once to eat and twice to do our business. Around three o’clock we came to another small town named Eranor. It too, had been burnt down. We saw two villagers going through the wreckage. One was a boy about our age, with blond hair, the other was a brown haired woman. Theldune approached them and started talking. He told how our town had been burnt down and how we were the only survivors. It turned out that they were the only survivors of their town. We invited them along with us. They were more than happy to come. It was nice to see a few new faces and stretch our limbs after that long ride. The two villagers rounded up three horses and some supplies. They joined us and we set off again. We rode until dark stopping to only to eat.

I found out that the kids name was Roscoe, the woman’s name was Lenya, and that Lenya was Roscoe’s best friend’s mom. We boys guarded the group of seven, Theldune and I in front, and Roscoe and Ivan in back. We came to a clearing around mid-night and built a small fire. The air was bitterly chilly, so we huddled around the fire. When the fire burned out, we were going to go to bed. Malina went through her pack, trying to find her canteen.

“Roscoe, will you hold this while I search for my canteen?” She asked, holding out the dragon egg. “Be careful, it’s a dragon egg and is very delicate.” Roscoe gaped at her. He took the egg and held it under the moonlight.

“It feels so warm!” Roscoe shivered.

“What?” Theldune sat up

“I said this egg feels so warm!”

Theldune told him that he was to keep the egg, and that the egg had chosen him. He also told us some information about dragons and what they eat, how fast they grow and that they were immortal, only vulnerable to flesh wounds, that they start breathing fire at two one and a half to two months old and can breed at four months old.

We went to bed and woke up around Ten o’clock the next morning. I checked my egg, which had began wobbling and shaking.

“Keep it out now! Theldune exclaimed excitedly. It is going to hatch in a few hours. We ate breakfast and rode for a while. Soon my egg was making scratching noises. In about another hour the egg had a few cracks in it. Luckily, we were nearing a town that had not been burnt down. You could make out some houses through the trees. We turned right at a fork in the road and went toward the town. Soon we were in a huge clearing with many buildings. We tied our horses to some posts and started walking. Cracks had appeared in the egg and a small whole had formed in the egg.

Soon a few little pieces of the egg were falling off, and the egg split in half. I set the egg on the ground and watched, transfixed, as the dragon climbed out. It unfurled and fanned its wings to help them dry out. The wing’s skin membrane was thin and translucent. The dragon’s scales glittered in the light. The dragon had Bright ruby red scales and a fleshy pale yellow underside. I reached out to touch it, but when I did a red bolt of lightning struck me, and a yellow mist radiated from the dragon, also a pale red lightning ran from the dragon up my arm and into my neck. My skin seemed to absorb the mist and then a Bright golden circle of light burst above my head. The light sank into my head. I felt better than I had in months. My veins burned with energy and I remembered a lot of things my old school teacher had taught me. I felt alive mentally, physically, and emotionally. I was happier than I had been in years. I also felt a different feeling. A sort of bond between the dragon and I. A tendril of hunger touched my mind. I could tell that it had come from the dragon. We bought the dragon some milk and fed it some salted venison and Jerky. It ate a lot for one little thing.

“There are some things you should know!” Theldune told me “all dragon riders have the ability to do magic. I saw you picking up the dictionary. Do you still have it with you?”

“Yes.”

“Good, you’ll need to study some spells. You will need to know the stick raising and the blade-guarding spell. Those are both great for a beginner in magic. You do not have any experience in magic, I presume.

“No, but I can practice.”

“You should practice everyday! Your magical energy strength grows a little each day. Sometimes it grows fast and sometimes not so fast. It all depends on if you use magic a lot.

I studied the two spells and found a few sticks. I practiced lifting a stick for a while. I reached into my consciousness and let energy suffuse me. In the first four times, the stick wobbled dangerously in the air and threatened to fall. It took more energy the first time than the second time. On the fifth try the stick stayed in the air for half a minute, it wobbled a little, but my magic was getting stronger. Exhausted I took a drink of water and ate an apple, a few blueberries and some salted pork. I fed my dragon again, after I finished eating. Soon night fell and we bivouacked at the inn.

I woke up and fed my dragon almost every two hours. When morning came, I was still a little tired so I slept an extra two hours. My dragons eating pattern changed a little, I fed him les frequently. He was noticeably heavier and bigger than yesterday. He stood about a foot and a half high, and was almost two feet long.

“Good morning. Shiva exclaimed when she saw me sitting and feeding my dragon. Shiva ate some sausage and put the rest in her pack.

“Theldune!” Shiva shrieked turned around to see her egg wobbling on the counter. “My egg is hatching.” Theldune ran in, elated at this news. I bought another big canteen, with my life savings, that I had rescued from our house. I filled it with milk, and advised Shiva to buy two or three. We set off around noon and ate three hours afterwards. The forest grew thicker and so did the animals and bugs. Soon we came to a river. It was too deep for our horses to cross on foot, so we boarded a ferry. We rowed to the other side, tied the ferry to the dock, and set off again. Soon we were on our way. Later that day Ivan’s dragon hatched. Everything was almost the same on the last two days, except that on the fourth day of our journey, Roscoe’s dragon hatched. Otherwise, everything was dull and boring. I suffered a little from ennui. On the fifth day, we encountered two of His soldiers coming from a different path. Theldune killed them both after gleaning some information from them. We walked on for another four hours and saw a few farms. Soon the farms began to get closer together. The city of Heltran was very big. One of the free humans’ biggest cities. We turned right at the inn and headed to a farm. Theldune had us cover our dragons. He knocked and a woman answered. She was the other dragon rider.

“What brings you here? I thought you were going after Zeldever. Where is Kirsten? Kuanna asked

Theldune’s mood suddenly changed and I knew the point had come to his dragon.

“She died!” He lamented.

“Oh, no! What am I going to do now? I can’t give up!”

“Nor will you have to!” I told her. We uncovered our four small dragons. Mine was too heavy for me to carry, so it was on the ground.

She gasped, and started laughing. “You always have a trick up your sleeve Theldune. We still have hope!

Ch. 2

I spent my spare time training myself in magic, going to the sparring gym, and playing with my dragon. I would soon begin lessons in magic, swordsmanship, and archery with Theldune. I was a fair enough archer and could kill most of my targets. I missed very few times. I also knew a little about sword fighting.”

I could raise a stick with no trouble and had advanced from stick and stone lifting to lifting a brick lifting. I could block my sword well enough and could summon an item from across the room. I was moving to summoning an item form a different room. I tried to summon a book from the inns library next door, but failed. I heard a thump as the book fell off the shelf. I tried three more times without success, on the fourth try it flew through the doorway and dropped a few feet away from me. I tried twice more before I could summon it to my hands. I grew tired and had to eat. I fed my dragon four times a day and three at night now. I took a break from practicing magic, and bought some chicken meat for her. My dragon, named Natasha, was near three feet tall and four and a half feet long after a week. It stood up to my hips and could carry me around like a horse.

I began to work on training her to fly, four days after we arrived. I had seen her try to fly once before. She soared a few feet into the air and landed gracefully. I asked her if she could go any higher and further than that.

Now that she was learning to speak, or rather think words, she could answer yes or no, or say hungry or even thank you, which she said as tank yoo.

Yes, watch. She said her first sentence. She took off at a run and climbed up to twenty feet in the air. She glided on a thermal for a few seconds, flew in some loops and a circle above me, and dived toward earth. I thought she was going to crash and watched, paralyzed with fear, but she flapped her wings out at Just the right moment. I ran over to her and complimented her. “How do you know how to fly like that?” I interrogated.

All she said was I just knew how. I took that as meaning instincts and asked her to fly some more. I told her to twist in the air and then do a loop. She did it as easy as a counting one, two, and three.” I asked her to twist while doing a loop. She just barely pulled it off. She started to fall but caught herself and tried again, without my asking.

“Natasha’s a natural!” Theldune said watching her fly in a loop while twisting. Not even my dragon could fly like that so soon into flying. He could do loops, but surely not a twisting loop.”

Natasha and I took a break and I practice sending objects away form me, with magic. “Thrina latry” I said trying to send a rock to a pillow. It took more energy to send something than to summon something. The stone flew about six feet away and started wobbling. I severed the magic flow so I did not get too exhausted. I failed the second time also. On the third, fourth and fifth tries I made it. I moved my target a little bit farther back, without magic. I did not make it on the first try but I did on my second and third tries. I advanced a little each day. Soon I could use almost half of the beginners spells. I could fry an egg with magic, boil water with magic, and detect some poisons with magic. I had memorized numerous other spells also.

I ate, bathed, and went to bed. I woke up twice to feed Natasha. When morning came I woke up, it was dreary and drizzly out. I walked over to the sparring gym and met Ivan there. We blocked our swords edges and sparred for a while. I won, because he had just started coming to the sparring gym, I naturally had the advantage. I met with my sparring partner, Kelto, about five minutes afterward and started sparring. I was almost as good as he was, but not quite. He was a beginner also. He beat me twice and bragged about it. He beat me a third time and bragged to his friends. I was getting mad about his bragging so I challenged him again. I charged at him and stabbed. His sword met mine in the air. I whipped around and stabbed at his side, again he blocked. He stabbed at me and I blocked every single stab. I jerked my hand towards his hip, but twisted it at just the right moment and hit his head with my sword. He dropped his sword in surprise.

“Who gets to brag now?” I asked.

I think he took the hint because he did not brag anymore when he won. Most of the time he lost. At noon, the sparring gym cleared and Theldune walked in. We were going to begin my training now.

“I see you can block your blade with magic, and raise a stick or a stone. Can you lift a brick?” He asked. I placed a brick in my right palm and spoke the incantation. The brick flew into the air a few feet in the air. “Move it in a circle,”

That was easy also.

We moved on to sending and summoning afterwards. I easily summoned the stone from the top of the sword stand. I also breezed by summoning a stone from the entrance room. I sent a stone onto the sword stand. I also sent a stone onto the shelf in the entrance room.

We moved onto cooking. We walked to the inn and into my room. I placed a pan on the stove and fried a couple eggs. I boiled some tea and detected various foods for poisons. Some of them had harmless poisons that make you feel a little sick and some of them had very dangerous poisons. Some of them had no poisons at all.

“Here drink this. You look a little tired.” Theldune told me. I detected it for poison first and found none. I drank clear, syrup-like liquid. After I took two swallows, I felt alive and ready to take on the challenge. We moved onto some intermediate level spells. To my surprise I could do a few of them, some of the others were a little too hard. I drank some more of the energy potion and we walked out to the woods. I was going to be tested in archery next. I smiled because I knew he would be surprised at how accurate I was. I used my own bow and arrows. The first target was very easy. Bull’s eye right in the center. I never missed a target and always hit the center. On the last target though, the furthest target, I was an inch away from the bull’s eye. Once archery was over, we sparred. I was not as good as he was, because I had just started a week ago. I learned very fast, though, as he showed me a series of complex moves in slow motion. I learned the moves and we began sparring. I noted how he kept his knees bent and did the same.

“Very good, your knees are bent.” I knew he was more than a match for me, and could tell he was just playing. I didn’t like when people played with me like that so I gave it my all. I stabbed faster and harder. He parried each blow. After fifteen minutes, I was out of breath but kept going on in determination. My sword felt like it was getting heavier and heavier. Soon he knocked it out of my hand.

“This was just a test. I will test you every week to see how you grow in these categories. As of right now, you are still a beginner in magic, just about an intermediate. In archery, to my surprise, you are an advanced archer, if you practice a little more, you will become a superior archer. I just finished testing Natasha, and she is an advanced flyer already. She told me she went out for two nights and started practicing.”

“I knew she had to be doing something to be so good at flying.” I exclaimed.

Natasha, where are you? I asked her.

At the inn, Why?

Come here. Where did you go after your lesson?

Hunting, why?

Just wondering. Do you think you could carry me on your back while you fly?

I know I can, she seemed confident, but I didn’t think she could.

Good I’ll meet you at the entrance of the inn.

Once at the Inn, I asked Natasha to carry me as far as she could. I retrieved the saddle Kuanna had made me, and buckled the straps. I mounted and buckled my legs in. We took off at an alarming speed. She took off as easily as she normally did. She didn’t even have to strain to get into the air. I was surprised that she could even carry me for that matter. I could fell her powerful muscles working as I felt her scales. We flew for nearly half an hour, over the city and treetops. I loved the feeling of the wind rushing through my hair. It was pure exhilaration. When we landed, I flattened my hair and rushed up to tell Ivan.

“No way!” I don’t think my dragon can even fly yet.

“All dragons are born able to fly!” I told him “it’s part of their instinct.” To prove this fact, I had him come with me outside. I mounted Natasha once more and we took off. I looked down at his gaping face. I tried to speak to him but I was to far up. I had to contact him with my mind. Ivan, don’t overdo it. Let them get used to flying and let them fly without a rider for about five days. Natasha is already an advanced flyer. She has been practicing at night.

Ivan began training with me and was learning as fast as I was in the beginning. I taught him some of the spells I knew, and how to aim a bow correctly. He had been learning about sparring in the sparring gym. By the next test I had with Theldune, I had become a superior archer, an intermediate magic user and I advanced a little in sparring, not quite enough to go up a level. I learned more spells each day, like how to start a fire or how to fill a cup with water, using magic. I loved learning about all this because I was determined!

“Whatever it takes I’m going to beat Zeldever! “ I vowed. “Even If it means death.

Ch. 3

The dragons grew steadily faster, as did their knowledge. They soon could speak as well as us, and knew almost everything we knew. In just a week, Natasha’s head was up to my shoulders. She could fly with two people on her back and hunted her own food. She was bigger than the other dragons and smarter. She usually knew the answers to the questions Theldune or I asked.

I too, was growing in swordsmanship and magic. My archery was growing in skill also. I could hit targets no matter how far they were away. The only time I could not hit them is if the target was too far and the bow snapped or the string broke. I had to get three new bows. My third one was made of the finest cedar. I learned that the more times a day you used magic, the faster your powers grew. I used magic every chance I could. I knew more spells, such as lifting water, or sending and controlling fire, or even conjuring large items, such as a chair, from another room. I could make small items appear out of nowhere. I also learned how to mix various potions and concoctions.

My favorite potion was the energy potion. Although it took twelve hours to make, it gave you lots of energy. The ingredient list consisted of fourteen items: The insides of a chicken’s egg, a dried flower of the plant known as Ronia, witch has healing powers, the only place you could find Ronia was in a forest, like the one we were in. It grew near the cities of the forest. I had some of the fragrant flowers that I had picked at home. They were dry so I used them. You also needed; freshly squeezed apple juice, the horn of a horse-like creature known as the Retlan (A horse with deer horns, and a short, stubby tail), the spores of a mushroom that grows on the red cedar tree (Only found in this forest and the Lixet Forest), water, the claw of a raven, the talon of a pheasant, the hair of a pig, a rabbits foot, a cob of corn, grapes, a Tressapop leaf (a kind of plant that has eyes on its stalks, and the only plant that had a human-like brain), and the dew on a blue sunflower, a very rare plant, that grew only in the prairies of Ilithuin. We had a little trouble finding that particular ingredient, but managed to buy two big bottles of it. Each recipe made a large cauldron full, so I made sure I had plenty by making four large cauldrons full and bottling all of them. There were twenty-eight large canteens full. I put them in a safe place which I magically locked, and went outside in the woods to try to conjure one of them. It took me three tries before I succeeded and when I did, it appeared with a faint “pop.”

I wouldn’t run out of this stuff for a long time. The problem was where would I keep it? That was easy. We were going to stay here for three more weeks and then set off to the elves. There we would learn magic for the more advanced magic users. Until that time, I would use little of it, maybe a canteen full. Then I would lock it up in a closet in Kuanna’s house, and summon them as needed. I also gave a bottle to Shiva, Ivan and Roscoe. Among some of the other potions I had learned to make were a simple healing potion and a sleeping potion.

It took a lot of practice to reach the advanced level of magic using. I was not even close. I was still almost halfway through the intermediate level. You only advanced so much a day, and it took a lot more too advance a little ways up at the intermediate level. In magic, there were seven levels. No one has ever lived to reach level seven except the Zeldever. The levels were; beginner, intermediate, advanced, super advanced, superior and ultra. Zeldever was on ultra. This was going to complicate things for me, which is why I did almost everything with magic, including cooking, sweeping, cleaning, lifting and moving items, opening a jar or even opening a book. Some things I didn’t use magic in, like archery and sparring. I even hunted with magic by sending rocks after the animal. At advanced you could learn how to do magic with out speaking. It took a lot more energy to do magic without speaking. Tomorrow Theldune or Kuanna would test me.

I sparred for over two and a half hours, with various people, and practiced magic for five hours. I rode with Natasha for two, and we talked the whole time. The only free time I had that day, was a half hour long. I spent it with my friends and my sister.

The five of us riders and Theldune took a walk into the park, discussing how powerful Zeldever and his servants were. Our first objective was to kill one of his servants and his dragon. Luckily, all of their dragons were males and couldn’t breed. This was not a wise decision for Zeldever, to make. By doing this, he couldn’t recruit more riders on his side. He made the decision that males were stronger than females and ruled out the females. He must’ve realized that this was not so intelligent, because he was now looking for the “last female,” which one of his servants killed. There were three more females in our group, Shiva’s dragon named Korine, Natasha, and Ivan’s dragon named Shianna. The three of us trained especially hard, because we would be His main goal.

I went to bed around nine o’clock that night, so I could wake up earlier and get a head start on the day. First, I would eat and then practice magic. I would then go to my sparring lesson, afterwards I would have my tests with Theldune.

I woke up around six, and cooked bacon, eggs and toast with magic, I devoted two more hours to practicing magic. I found the beginning intermediate spells easier and moved on to the higher spells of intermediate. A good night’s sleep can do a lot. I thought as I moved through the higher intermediate spells. I had no time to practice the hardest intermediate spells because I had to train for sparring.

When I arrived at the sparring gym, I paired off with someone named Halrant and introduced myself. He introduced himself, and we began. He too, was an intermediate swordsman. I studied the way some advanced people moved and some of their moves. I learned a few new moves and then we began. Halrant defeated me once, but I paid him back by defeating him five times. I studied the posture and the way the advanced people moved a little bit more, and found a new partner. He was an intermediate also. I beat him four times and got bored. I studied some more moves and took in all that I could for fifteen more minutes.

Soon it was time to be tested, and the sparring gym closed down. Theldune began by asking me to make a rock appear on my palm. This was easy for me, so I moved onto one of the canteens of energy potion. I sent it back, and summoned a chair from my room at the inn. After we were done with sending and summoning, we moved on to conjuring. I could conjure fire, but not water. To conjure water, it would have to be in a canteen or it would flow all over. I lifted water, which was possible. I also sent fire toward Theldune, saying a spell so it would go around him and disperse. It was as if a spherical shield was set around him. Fire was easy to control and manipulate.

After we moved on with conjuring, I enchanted a pig to run around in circles. That was a little bit harder. It took more energy than I expected, even though I had never done it before. Theldune told me that enchanting any thing bigger than a large goat, such as humans, elves, centaurs, dragons or dwarves was impossible, as was bring back a dead person, or trying to avoid fate with magic. In other words if you tried to kill yourself with magic, the magic would be blocked and flow back into your body.

I made it through the intermediate and tried a few advanced spells. I managed to do seven advanced spells, each on the second, third or four tries. When we were done with magic testing, we moved onto archery. I breezed by that with all bull’s eyes and we moved onto sparring. I tried some of the new moves I learned, but I still wasn’t quite as good as him. We battled for more than fifteen minutes, both of us parrying, and stabbing. Our bodies move together engaged in an ephemeral, graceful dance, our swords clashed, our energy ran low and soon we were tired. I noticed that he was sweating, it wasn’t because of heat either. It was mid-spring and today was somewhat chilly. Soon he had knocked the sword out of my hand and had won.

My results were far greater than I had thought. I was beginning the advanced level of magic, and was beginning the advanced sparring level. I had one more sparring level to go. That level was the highest level of sparring, which was superior. My archery was naturally superior.

Yet I was nowhere near as skilled as Zeldever I was progressing fast. I could tell my muscles were growing at a fast pace. All the fat I had before, was now muscle. My biceps were bigger than ever, and so were my abs and leg muscles. I was much faster at running than when we started on this journey. I had also grown emotionally and mentally stronger.

Natasha, I called

Coming, I just finished hunting. Do you want to go on a ride?

You know I do. Where should we go?

I don’t really know! Let’s just relax for a while. You need to get rid of some stress and tension, and spend more time with your friends.

That is probably a wise idea.

The four of us, along with Malina, flew over the treetops and circled around the town for two hours. During those two hours, I explained why I had been training so much and not spending as much time with them. They understood how bad I wanted to get even with Him.

I caught up on what was happening and found out that they had all been training a lot also. They hadn’t devoted whole days to training but at leas half days or three fourths of a day to training. They were each being tested by Theldune also. They were each at intermediate levels of magic, except Malina who had recently discovered she could do magic without owning a dragon. Her powers weren’t growing as quick as ours either, because dragons made our powers grow faster. She was not quite at the intermediate level. Roscoe and Ivan were also hunters and were superior at archery. Shiva, who had had a little hunting experience in the past was an advanced archer. Malina had begun training also, and was intermediate in archery and sparring. Everyone else was at the intermediate sparring level also.

Once we landed, we went to the dragon-hold in Kuanna’s house. That is where they slept, because the Inn wouldn’t allow them in anymore. They complained that the dragons claws scratched their floors too much and that they needed to leave or pay for the damage. The four of us started practicing together every day. Since I was so far ahead of them, I taught them and helped them in archery, sparring and magic. We took our tests together, and noticed a great improvement in all of our rates of success. All was going well, and our hope to rid this land of the evil that befouled it, was getting greater.

Ch.4

Two weeks blew past and soon we began preparing to set off to the elves. We trained even harder, and longer. I made more energy potion so we would each have five more large canteens. We would summon them as we needed, and use them sparingly. The energy potion I used was the strongest formula. We were all still using the same canteen of the potion as we were two weeks ago.

I began trying to teach myself how to cast spells nonverbally It took more energy than I was used to, and I had to take a couple swigs of energy potion on my first four tries. Doing beginner level spells without speaking was an intermediate level of magic. I was able to do them silently and at ease. However, doing the intermediate spells silently, presented a bit of a challenge. In two days, I could make intermediate spells work without uttering a word. I did have to take more swigs of energy potion than usual, and my first canteen was only about a fourth gone.

We sparred for four hours in the gym each day, studying the way the advanced users moved. I was an advanced swordsman and pointed out many of the bad habits of the beginners and intermediates and how the advanced had only a couple, if not any, bad habits. I pointed out posture and gave them tips. I showed them how to execute certain moves. After ten to twelve minutes of this, we found partners and started sparring. I sparred with the more advanced swordsmen. I watched the five most advanced, and how they moved. They were more graceful and flexible than any of us. I began stretching and exercising more. I stretched for a half an hour each day, and exercised for another half an hour. We were all improving very rapidly. I even challenged one of the best swordsmen, but I lost. It was a good fight and I kept it going for ten minutes. The girl, who I had challenged, told me that I should stretch twice a day for half an hour each. I took her advice seriously, and stretched at night. We dedicated two more days to training. Over the course of the last two days, we packed our belongings and trained; we flew for an hour and talked. On the first of the two days, we spent the first half testing with Theldune. First in magic, then in archery and last in sparring. The testing went great. I could easily do silent intermediate spells and was a little above half way in the advanced level.

When it was time for the sparring test, Malina went first and tested at an intermediate level, Roscoe, Ivan, and Shiva were just starting the advanced level and then it was my turn. I took my position, hoping to surprise him at how well I was doing. I charged, bringing my sword down at his head. He leaned back and easily blocked it. I pivoted and whipped my sword at his side. Again, he parried it and started stabbing. I parried each hit that he threw at me. In turn, he blocked all of mine. The battle went on for twenty minutes in pretty much the same way. I was just starting to get tired, and he had been sweating for a few minutes. I whipped my sword and hit him on the side, and then I whipped it at his sword knocking it out of his hand, and pointing my sword at him.

“You won. I was one of the most advanced swordsmen here and you, a mere kid, no offense, matched my blade. You are one of the most talented swordsmen I have ever seen. You are also just about as strong as I am in magic, and better than I am in archery. I can tell that you have great skill and great potential. I will also tell you something that will help you with your magic. Dragons are able to give some of their riders, their own strength too , which can help the rider greatly. I know you will all need to rely on your dragons help at some point.”

I also want to say that when we leave for the elves, we will set off before sunrise. I will wake you when it is time to leave. I believe you all have just gotten new saddles!”

“No we didn’t”

“They will be in your room when you return. Keep the old ones for the last rider. We have tested everyone in the city and no one is a match for the egg. We should find a match in Lenglea, the elfin city we are headed to. The elfin king and queen rule all the elves from that city. It is a three-day dragon ride from here. We will go north toward the Grand Plains. The city is in the forest, by where the plains begin. We will turn west and travel for six hours.” The only time we will stop is for eating, sleeping or maybe once or twice to stretch our legs. I will be riding with Jakarta and Malina, if you want you may stay behind, you can, because the elves are the most advanced in magic and sparring. You would not be able to match them. However, you could learn a lot more than what you can learn here.”

“I will stay behind. I am just looking for a quiet place to settle. I like it here. Just make sure you come back and visit me!”

“We aren’t going to come back for at least two months or possibly up to six.”

“I’ll come then. I want to be with people I know. I haven’t really made any friends here.”

“You can ride with Shiva.”

“Roscoe, Lenya wants to come because she told me that she promised your mother that if she ever died, she would take over as your guardian and help you as much as she can. She will be riding with you. We will start out on horses until we get to a smaller town. There we will buy food and some supplies. I think that will be all for now.”

I gathered everything I needed, including my savings, sword, bow, arrows, some jerky, water, energy potion, apples, and my dictionary, and some books. I put everything into my pack and started my daily stretching. I decided to go over and do some last minute sparring. I walked up to Kishi, one of the most advanced swordswomen in the city, and challenged her to four. The first went on for ten and my hand accidentally slipped giving her an open shot, which she took advantage of. We battled for thirteen minutes and I won by starting to stab at her right leg but pivoting and hitting her on the left side of her head. I took the distraction and knocked the sword out of her hand. I won faster in the last two times.

I practiced magic with Ivan, Shiva and roscoe for the rest of the day. I taught them how to do nonverbal beginner spells. I had them do seven each and then taught them how to move very large objects, such as a tree, from their path. They learned near twenty-two spells from me, before we headed off to bed. I woke up around midnight and ate a snack. I couldn’t go back to sleep so I just studied a few more spells in my dictionary. The dictionary had two sections. Each section was over seven hundred pages. One section was of spells and the other of words. I could use the words to make a spell. I had a great idea, but I knew it would be impossible so I just made up a spell to talk to someone at a far distance. Around three hours later, Theldune came in and woke everybody else up. We gathered out packs and tied them to our dragon’s backs. I bought a pair of thick cloves and a thick fur coat the day before, because it gets colder the further up you go.

We set off on our horses and rode north to a small town. While there, we bought food, filled our canteens with water, ate breakfast. We bought caps to cover our ears. Everyone else bought coats and gloves. I also bought a new book and some extra jerky for a snack or two. We regretfully sold our horses and gratefully mounted our dragons. At least our ride would be smooth and not jolty like on a horse back. But I had raised my horse since it was a little foal.

I pocketed the twelve golden coins I got for my horse and we set off. At least I got a good price! I thought. I decided to try the spell I made up and said the incantation while thinking of an image of Ivan in my head. It felt like beginners spell, and barely required any energy. An image of Ivan appeared in front of my eyes. “How’d you do that?” Theldune, who was sitting behind me. I looked over at Ivan and saw him jump when my image appeared in front of him. I could barely hear anyone on a different dragon, with out the spell, because of the roar of the wind.

“Hello Ivan!” I said as casually as I could make it

“H-how are you doing that?” he stuttered.

“It’s a spell I mad up last night. The incantation is Mulybus ferras kalint releanta. Take a moment and memorize this. I am going to try it on Roscoe to see how he reacts. To break the connection say leanetera finoy” I said the words again for him to memorize and then said Leanetera finoy in a spell. The connection was broken and I did the same thing to roscoe

“Whoa,” he yelled “How the heck are you doin’ that?” Lenya just stared at me with her mouth open the whole time.

“It’s a spell I made up” I explained, telling him the words to start talking and the words to break the connection.

I did the same thing to Shiva and Malina; they both jumped and screamed at the sight of me.”

“Calm down! I am just using a spell I made up last night.” I repeated both of the incantations three times for them to memorize. The first day was boring. We slept in a small clearing, and ate in the morning. On the second day, we managed to get a head start and set off very early, at about two hours after midnight. We wanted to get there as soon as possible to begin our training.

About four and a half hours later, we spotted a very large formation of people. It looked like an army. There were also dragons with it. It was His army! They were heading to the elves! We headed east as fast as we could go. Luckily, the wind was on our side and we got the five-hour distance covered in two and a half hours. We headed north again until five hours past sunset. We approached the edge of the plains and forest. I could make out, by the moonlight, the edge of the trees, which were starting to get further and further apart. Then I saw our destination. A golden palace, glittering in the moonlight, on our right.